Men's Basketball

KU to be final stop for No. 10 hoops recruit

Top-10 basketball prospect Josiah Turner has reshuffled his list of official campus visits, giving Kansas University a shot to make the all-important final sales pitch.

Turner, a 6-foot-3 senior point guard from Sacramento (Calif.) High, who originally was to visit Arizona on Oct. 22-23 — a week after attending KU’s Oct. 15 Late Night in the Phog — will visit U of A on Sept. 17-18.

Turner — he improved from No. 12 to 10 in the latest Rivals.com rankings — will visit Louisville on Sept 3-4, UConn Sept 10-11 and Oregon on Oct. 1-2. He still has UCLA and Oklahoma on his list.

“It’s huge,” Rivals.com analyst Shay Wildeboor said of the significance of nabbing the last visit in the world of recruiting.

“By the time he announces, it will be the last thing he’ll remember. He attended Late Night on an unofficial visit last year. He’s coming back on an official visit this year and has made KU his final visit. He obviously has great interest in KU.”

Angelo Chol, a 6-8 senior center from San Diego’s Hoover High, also will visit for Late Night. He is Rivals.com’s No. 76-rated player. Ben McLemore, a 6-5 senior from Oak Hill Academy in Mouth of Wilson, Va., who likely will visit for Late Night, is No. 17 overall. The country’s No. 1 prospect, 6-3 point guard Austin Rivers of Winter Park (Fla.) High, tells the Orlando Sentinel he likely will visit KU, Duke, North Carolina and Florida. Duke is believed to be the favorite.

No. 4-rated LeBryan Nash, 6-7 from Dallas Lincoln, said he may visit for Late Night. KU is expected to receive visits from No. 19-rated Norvel Pelle, 6-8 from Price High in Compton, Calif., No. 44 Jakarr Sampson, 6-7 from St. Vincent-St. Mary in Akron, Ohio, and No. 79 Mikael Hopkins, 6-8 from DeMatha High in Hyattsville, Md.

Coming Sunday: Former KU guard/journalism major Keith Langford, who is beginning the final year of a two-year, $2.6 million deal with Khimki Moscow of the Euroleague, recently contacted the Journal-World about writing a piece for the paper.

He gained a following writing a column for the University Daily Kansan while at KU.

“In reflecting upon my time at KU recently, I wanted to give a piece of my life these last five years,” said Langford, 26, who will discuss his pro career and shed some insight into what he said was a disappointing final season at KU. To read the Langford column, pick up a copy of Sunday’s paper or check KUsports.com.

This kind of worries me. I dont like the fact that he moved the Arizona visit up to mid September. I read that he is best friends with Nick Johnson, who just commited there and I think these kids just want to get it over with. Hopefully he waits on making a commitment until he gets here and sees the magic of the PHOG.

A following is one way of putting what Keith built with his UDK column. As I remember, he got ripped pretty hard by bball fans and his fellow J-School students alike for what he said in those columns. I'm interested to read what he has to say about his senior year though.

OH PLEASE...no speculation on what school J. Turner is going to...I became jaded from the Terrence Jones saga....

The only thing that matters for recruiting is the fact that KU has one of the top 5 coaching staffs in America...recruits will come. Those recruits will be developed in to great players and people.....it's as simple as that.

Turner (10), McLemore (17), and a combination of two of Chol(76)/Nash(4)/Wiltjer(25)/Pelle(17) would be a great class for Self and KU. Reminds of the 2008 class of Wright (8), Chalmers (12), Rush (13), and Downs (28).

It appears there are a lot of prospects in the 2011 class. I'm hoping McLemore or Turner will commit and the rest of the dominoes will fall.

Turner is probably headed to Arizona. He will most likely commit before ever coming to Kansas. This very bad news for Jayhawk fans. Facts that make this seem true:

A quote from his mother: "We have an in-home visit with Arizona scheduled for September 9th. I spoke with Arizona this morning and we email and talk with [assistant coach] Archie [Miller] almost everyday. I would say we talk to Arizona more so than Kansas..."

He re-scheduled the trip to make sure his AAU Oakland Soldiers backcourt-mate and good friend, Arizona commit Nick Johnson will be in Arizona too.

Arizona Football plays #6 ranked Iowa the weekend he visits. Many people are predicting Arizona to win. If that happens the place will be crazy.

Arizona is recruiting another high profile PG Quinn Cook. Cook visits Arizona the weekend after Turner, and Sean Miller has made it clear that they'll take the first player who commits. Turner knows this and if has a good time, he might just pull the trigger before Cook can.

Thats a very pessimistic approach. Wasn't he supposed to be a package deal with Jabari Brown? Don't forget that Self has an in-home visit as well as the fact that he is coming for freaking late night in phog. The weekend of the KU - KSU game! sheesh. We got it going on that weekend